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1. User-rights in Australia’sUser-rights in Australia’s
Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF):Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF):
A Southern Hemisphere,A Southern Hemisphere,
Developed Country ExperienceDeveloped Country Experience
Annie Jarrett
CEO

2. Part 1: About the Northern
Prawn Fishery

3. General
•Australia’s largest and most valuable prawn Fishery: GVP
$65 - $95 million
•Remote, located in Australia’s Far North - 770,000 square
kilometres in area
•Managed by Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) –
single jurisdiction; no RMFO’s
•Industrial highly efficient freezer trawlers (20-24 metres)
•Fuel & crew highest operating costs (approx 50%)
•Strong long-term partnerships - managers, industry,
science, NGOs; AFMA/ industry co-management contract

4. Northern Prawn Fishery
Australia’s Premier Prawn Fishery
General Overview

5. Effort Distribution - 2013

6. MULTI-SPECIES DEMERSAL
PRAWN TRAWL FISHERY:
•Banana (Merguiensis & Indicus) 2014:
5500 t
•Tiger (Semisulcutus & Esculentus)
2014: 1200 t
•Endeavour & King
•Byproducts – Squid, Moreton Bay
bugs, Scallops
•High % bycatch/discards (10/1)

7. Settings
 Harvest strategies include TRP: Maximum Economic Yield
(MEY) (2004) & LRP: Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)
 Escapement: In-season trigger limits – banana & tiger
prawn fisheries
 Bio-economic stock assessment model –tiger prawns/
indicus
 MPA’s; spatial & temporal closures (permanent, seasonal)
FISHING SEASONS:
1 April - 15 June (banana prawn season)
1 August - 30 November (tiger prawn season)

8. • Limited entry – 52 prawn trawlers; 19 owners
• Fishing rights: Inputs controls (effort units), legislated as
Gear Statutory Fishing Rights (SFRs)
– boat SFRs (1 per boat)
– gear SFRs ( based on headrope length ie 1 centimetre
headrope = 1 gear SFR)
• Quad (4), twin (2), triple (3) or tongue nets
• Mandatory VMS/ TEDs/BRDs/ log books ( 95% using
electronic logs)

10. CURRENT ENVIRONMENT:
 Banana prawn fishery: Highly variable recruitment
(rainfall dependent): 2014 – 5500 t
 Tiger prawn fishery at or above Maximum Economic Yield
(MEY):
2014 – 1200 t
 GVP fluctuating between $65 and $95 million (subject to
exchange rates)
 ‘User pays’ management costs - $2.5 million AUD/year
 Well managed - Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified -
2012

11. Banana and tiger fishery catch (tonnes)
1970 - 2014

12. Fishing Effort: 1970 to 2014

13. PART 2: THE NPF USER-
RIGHTS STORY

14. WHY USER-RIGHTS?
•Initial over-subscription of fishing licences
•Long history of too many boats catching too few
prawns - over-capitalisation and over-fishing
•Adjustment programs:
 1985: industry-funded buy back commenced
 1990: accelerated buy back - 70,000 effort unit
target
 1993: 30% compulsory surrender of effort units
 2000 – 2005: internal adjustment through
compulsory reduction of effort (gear) units
 2006/07: Govt funded buy back

15. • Closures & gear restrictions effective for
reducing fishing effort but impose economic
efficiencies
• Adjustments to balance biological and
economic sustainability ongoing into the
future
• Implemented rights based management to:
 Limit catching capacity & fishing effort -
stock sustainability
 Improve economic return/profitability
 Provide flexibility - adapt to change
 Provide security of access – exclusivity
 Encourage stewardship of resource

16. EVOLUTION OF NPF USER-RIGHTS SYSTEM
1965 - 1977:
• Open access fishery
• Govt ship building subsidy
• Big catches (12,500 T banana prawns – 1974)
• Rapid expansion of fleet size/fishing effort/ effort
creep
• Annual permits
• Ice (wet) boats - 1 stern net
1977 - 1984
• Moratorium on boat numbers (190)
• Interim Management Plan
• Annual boat licenses
• Industry/ Govt committee (NORPAC)
• Ice to Freezer boats - 2 nets towed from booms
• Some seasonal closures

17. 1984:
• The ‘A’ unitisation system introduced
• ‘A’ units based on boat and engine size (HP)
(Individual Transferable Fishing Rights)
• One B (boat) unit & A units to fish
• 133,269 A units; 292 boat units issued under
Interim Management Plan
• Annual license
• Recognised by govt, industry, financiers as first
legal NPF fishing ‘property right’
1985:
Unitisation scheme incorporated into NPF
Management Plan 1985……. BUT

19. ‘That Creep Called
Effort’
•‘A UNITS’ NOT SUCCESSFUL AT RESTRICTING CATCHING
CAPACITY & EFFORT CREEP
•TIGER PRAWNS OVERFISHED IN 1986 (1990, 1995, 2000)
•DRACONIAN INPUT CONTROLS (CLOSURES, GEAR
RESTRICTIONS) IMPLEMENTED FROM 1987 – 1990 TO REBUILD
STOCKS. ‘DEATH OF A THOUSAND CUTS’
•30% COMPULSORY REDUCTION OF ‘A’ UNITS IN 1993 TO RETURN
PROFITABILITY
•(SADLY – WE REPEATED ‘DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS’ SEVERAL
TIMES OVER THE NEXT 10 YEARS)

20. Back to the Drawing
Board!
Joint govt/ industry WG review of alternative rights-based
systems: 1995 – 1997
•ITQs
•Time units (fishing days/nights)
•Effort Units (combination of time, boat size, hp)
•Gear units (headrope length)
CONCLUSION: Gear Units system based on net size
(headrope length) best proxy for catch

21. Gear Unit Rights System
•Gear units system introduced in 2000. 1 gear unit = 1 cm
headrope. No headrope limit – total gear units
•Boat & gear units assigned to each boat - provide exclusive
access to the fishery
•Individual transferable effort units (ITEs) - fully transferable &
divisible. Option of ‘basket’ rights (company ownership)
•Statutory fishing Rights (SFRs) under NPF Management Plan
1995
•Perpetual right unless Management Plan revoked - existing
rights holders get first option under a replacement MP

22. Gear Units cont.
• Enforceable - gear units (centimetres of headrope) easily measured on
shore & at sea
• Have allowed removal of some inputs (eg headrope limits, longer seasons),
improved profitability
• Input substitution/effort creep monitored through annual surveys - changes
factored into ‘fishing power model’
• Adjustable. Changes in fishery productivity/effort creep addressed by
adjusting the value of the gear unit (headrope length). Facilitated removal of
100 boats between 2000 & 2007 (internal adjustment/ govt buy back)

23. ‘Currency’ of the fishery - used as basis for:
 restricting fishery effort levels
 internal & external trading
 management costs (user pays) levies
 research levies
 industry association levies
 marketing & promotion levies
 adjustment/restructuring
Gear Units cont.

24. Governance
• Transparent, participatory, accountable legal framework:
– Australian Fisheries Management Authority (Statutory Authority answers
to Fisheries Minister)
– Fisheries Management and Administration Acts
– NPF Management Plan, Regulations & Directions
• Strong regulatory but collaborative advisory structure:
– Management Advisory Committee (NORMAC): fishery managers,
industry, science & NGO’s;
– Fishery Resource Assessment Group (NPRAG): fishery managers,
industry, science, economist
– Co-management contract: AFMA and NPF Industry Pty Ltd
– NPFI responsible for data management, crew member observer program,
fishery budgets, advice on regulatory changes, in-season management
(closures/trigger limits)

25. • Equal opportunity fishery
• Many females involved since 1970’s –
skippers, cooks, deckhands (including
myself)
• Females comprise 50% of NPF Crew
Member Observer monitoring program
• indigenous, non-Australians

26. Legal Framework
• AFMA’s legislation includes Ecological Sustainable
Development (ESD) objective: (social, economic &
environmental); Precautionary Principle; EBFM
• Harvest Strategies (target & limit reference points) & Bycatch
policies to achieve biological, economic and environmental
sustainability
• Equal opportunity/rights, WH&S, 457 Visas, cadetships, CMO
program - protecting & up-skilling our workers,

27. SOCIAL:
 Profitable fishery attracting new crew, generating stable employment &
long term career paths, higher remuneration & profit sharing (bonuses)
 Supply export and domestic markets. 80% of banana prawns to domestic
market; 90% of tiger prawns to Japan & China. Market distribution
according to fishery yield, price & exchange rates
 Alternative career paths : on-shore fleet managers, mothership operators,
scientific observers, fisheries managers, marketing & recruitment officers,
oil & gas industry
 Ownership changed and consolidated under rights based system. Medium
to large companies (5-12 boats) own 70% of rights; smaller operators (1-4
boats) own 30% of rights (compared to 50/50 in 2000)
Effects

28. ECONOMICS:
• NPF important economic contributor to regional
domestic & export economies
• Direct and indirect employment, onshore & offshore processing,
repairs and maintenance, retail and food services industries in
northern regional Australia
• Operator & fishery profitability impacts on all economies
• User rights have been the sole basis for fisheries adjustment &
improving profitability in the NPF eg
Before gear units (1998/99) -134 boats. Income/boat $1.1
million AUD
After gear units (2011/12) - 52 boats. Income/boat $1.78
million AUD

29. Boat Numbers 1970 - 2015

30. Gross Value Production 2000 -
2011

31. ENVIRONMENTAL:
Greatly improved stock status - high banana
prawn yield; ‘overfished’ tiger prawns (1986 – 2000) - at or
above MEY 2012 
Substantially less environmental footprint - < 8% of area
fished
50% reduction in bycatch since 1998: turtles, rays, sharks,
small bycatch
MSC CERTIFIED (2012)

32. PART 3: LOOKING BACK &
LOOKING FORWARD

33. 4! KEY LESSONS
User rights systems: both a challenge & an opportunity. Can be highly
successful or totally disastrous!
No such thing as the ‘perfect’ system – trade-off and balance between
social, economic & environmental objectives
 ‘Rights’ system must ‘fit’ the fishery: type, objectives & operating
environment or it will fail (eg the NPF ‘A’ unit system)
Full stakeholder engagement essential in development & implementation
of user-rights. Lack of buy-on will result in abuse & failure of rights
system

34. BEST PRACTICE
Earlier move to limited entry & user-rights system
Preventing stock depletion &/or over-capitalisation is
easier than reversing it
 NPF - 30 years, >$200 million AUD in adjustment (internal &
external) programs reversing the problem
Get the ‘instrument’ right – changing from one rights-based
system to another can create inequities, uncertainty, legal
issues
Earlier & more participatory stakeholder engagement in
developing rights-based system
More investment in monitoring effectiveness of, &
compliance with, user rights system

35. CONCLUSIONS
 User rights have delivered social, economic &
environmental benefits to the fishery, the nation & NPF
rights holders
 User rights engender stewardship over the resource
and encourage responsible fishing practices
 User rights can prevent or reverse overfishing & excess
capacity
 Need to get the ‘rights’ right – clear objectives, ‘fit for
purpose’
 With rights comes responsibility - good governance and
stakeholder stewardship are KEY to success

36. .
Thank you